Ukraine awaits key ruling on election crisis

Ukraine’s Supreme Court will hear final arguments today on opposition demands for a revote of the disputed presidential election.

As tens of thousands of opposition protesters huddled in a tense vigil, braving frigid temperatures in the capital Kiev, Russian president Vladimir Putin weighed in against the opposition’s demands, saying a repeat poll would “yield nothing”.

Supporters of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko are looking to the Supreme Court to back his appeal to cancel the official results of the November 21 vote that declared Kremlin-backed prime minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner.

Yushchenko has said his victory was stolen through fraud, pointing at widespread electoral violations in the prime minister’s strongholds in the east and south, near Russia.

Yushchenko insisted on a revote of the run-off and firmly rejected a proposal by Ukraine’s outgoing president Leonid Kuchma to hold an entirely new election.

Many see the move as an attempt by Kuchma’s supporters to put forth a new candidate who would be more popular than Yanukovych.

“If a revote date isn’t set quickly after the Supreme Court’s ruling, we will take adequate steps against the government,” Yushchenko told supporters who gathered at Kiev’s main square.

Kuchma, meanwhile, paid a quick visit to Putin in Moscow.

“A revote could be conducted a third, a fourth, a 25th time, until one side gets the results it needs,” a sarcastic Putin told Kuchma.

Putin openly supported Yanukovych, amid Kremlin fears that a Yushchenko victory could drag the former Soviet republic of 48 million out of Moscow’s orbit and closer to the West.

Yushchenko criticised Kuchma’s trip to Russia, saying ”the source of power is located in Ukraine – it’s the Ukrainian people”.

Ukrainian media have frequently tipped Yanukovych’s former campaign chief, Serhiy Tyhypko, as the most likely choice to be a new presidential candidate, were an entirely new election to be held.

Tyhypko, a young and charismatic politician, might fare better against the reformist, Western-oriented Yushchenko than Yanukovych, who Kuchma picked to run last spring in hopes his prominence and publicity as prime minister would attract votes.

Russia and the West have traded accusations of meddling in Ukraine’s vote, and Putin’s meeting with Kuchma could revive the ire he raised in Europe and the United States by congratulating Yanukovych for winning before the official outcome was announced, ignoring reports of widespread fraud.

Putin again issued a warning to the West, saying “neither Russia, nor the European Union, nor international organisations will solve the problems”.

The leaders of France and Germany called for a new election in Ukraine – but did not say what kind – while the European Parliament said the runoff should be repeated.

“I think any election, if there is one, ought to be free from any foreign influence,” US president George Bush said.

Ukraine is divided roughly between Yanukovych supporters in the east who favour close Russian ties and Yushchenko backers in the west, wary of Moscow’s centuries-old clout.